Episode I:
The Phantom Menace

FIRST THE HYPE, then the hysterical anti-hype backlash and now, finally, the movie. And the surprising news is that it's nowhere near as bad as they said it would be. The story is a simple pencilling-in of the saga's prehistory, and as such it's unpretentious and largely devoid of preaching, whilst pole position in the cycle guarantees there are no loose ends to be tied up with silly plot contrivances. In tone and resolution the story is close to the first movie (down to the execrable scene-on-the-steps ending), yet more than ever this movie is about the journey rather than the destination.

And what a journey, for although it confidently picks up the technological torch from the original triad, The Phantom Menace comes off more like a galactic travelogue, whizzing us through glorious panoramas of Naboo, Coruscant and, nostalgically, Tatooine. Surely it's for the majesty of worlds that this movie will be remembered. There are space battles and light-sabre duels too, but no amount of vertiginous zooming and dazzling acrobatics can disguise the truth that these things merely reprise what was once fresh. The pod racing is fun, but even here the real innovation is in the milieu, and our lasting impressions will be of beautiful locations populated by some of the best aliens we've ever seen.

As a film, it sucks. It's too long, highly episodic, and is just a little too 'previously on Star Wars' for comfort. Jake Lloyd spends half the movie simply tagging along and the rest of the time he's far too young to be convincing in any of the situations we're shown him in. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor are merely competent in what little acting they have to do, and although Neeson's accent is uncharacteristically innocuous (if not exactly convincing), McGregor steps boldly into his shoes to chase the nomination for the 'I'm not Meryl Streep' award at next year's Oscars. The other Names that pop up (Terence Stamp, Samuel L. Jackson among them) are mere cameos, and though Natalie Portman is cute as Queen Amidala, all that crown-and-dagger stuff gets a bit confusing in the end. Jar-Jar Binks, surprisingly, is a rather convincing character, and although he serves no real purpose, he's not nearly as irritating as you've been told.

In the end it's a visual feast that occasionally teeters on the edge of tedium. Let's not forget that this is targeted at children (seven to fourteen years old, according to producer Rick McCallum) so perhaps we shouldn't expect too much. For all that it's enjoyable, fascinating and occasionally funny, but is it Star Wars? Well yes and no. It hasn't got Han Solo in it, and although the sleeker hardware has an altogether different feel to the previous films this works against the nostalgia factor. Only on Tatooine, and particularly in the run up to the pod racing scenes, do we revisit the old Star Wars 'junkyard' technology, and for that reason these are probably the strongest scenes in the movie.

What's obvious is that film-making technology really has come of age for this sort of thing. It's entertaining to hear the movie snobs, many of whom haven't seen the film, banging on about special effects as if they were saying something profound, yet I've not heard one of them distinguish between special effects and production design. 'But the effects aren't even special', spouts Andrew Neil on his tabloid talk show, under the classic misapprehension that 'special effects' means spaceships and light-sabres. But ask him to point out the joins between Leavesden aerodrome and Tunisia and he'll amply demonstrate that the best special effects are the ones we don't even notice. 'Whatever happened to acting?', whines Neil after witnessing a blue-screen shot, as if a lack of real scenery somehow devalues the actor's performance. I expect most theatre critics would disagree.

In the end, imaginative design and awesome production are what The Phantom Menace is all about, and it's for the sheer volume of creative input that the movie deserves to be remembered. It's the kind of movie that repays repeated viewing, and if the result is deeply flawed, it is entertaining and a whole lot more so than its predecessor, Return of the Jedi. For die-hard Star Wars fans, you might say it's a New Hope.